10 Reasons You Should Avoid Buying Beauty Products As Gifts This Christmas

There used to be one gift I would always buy by default for my female friends at Christmas time…

Smellies!

I’m not sure if this is a term you are familiar with, but here, we have a saying, ‘if in doubt as to what present to get, buy smellies.’

Smellies are simply personal care or beauty products that smell nice (well I used to think they smelled nice, I don’t anymore).

You know those gift sets you can get at Christmas, the kind with a handful of mini personal care products such as moisturisers, shower gel, sugar scrubs etc.

Most women don’t use them (thankfully) and they sit in the bathroom collecting dust. Or they take them away as travel products when they go away.

I remember when I made the switch from store bought products to homemade personal care products.

I filled about 6 large bags full of personal care products that I’d been collecting over the years, and threw it all away. Such a good feeling!

So if you’re someone who buys ‘smellies’ as gifts for others at Christmas, I would love you to reconsider this year.

And I want to give you 10 good reasons why you should reconsider store bought beauty products either gifts or for your own use.

1: Homemade products are better for your skin

Most store bought products only contain up to 6% active ingredients, where as when you make your own the active ingredients can be 100% of the ingredients.

The more active ingredient, the better the products are for your skin and the more your skin will have a beautiful glow.

My skin has become so much more healthy since I started making my own products.

My husband says I now look younger than the first day we met more than 10 year ago!

My skin is also far too sensitive for store bought products now.

Most of the hypoallergenic products actually contain very harmful ingredients. Don’t trust the labels! If it says ‘natural’ or even ‘organic’ that doesn’t mean it’s natural or healthy – often very far from it.

2: It’s much cheaper

People think organic products are expensive but have you seen the price of store bought wrinkle creams lately?

You will be really surprised how economical it is to make your own products.

I bought a massive batch of ingredients a couple of years ago that I used to make my own products, for less than the price of an expensive wrinkle cream.

And I still have most of them, as you need to use very little when you make your own products, so you save a fortune.

It’s also a very cheap way to make gifts for other people.

3: It takes very little time to make your own products

It takes me about 15 minutes to throw together a 3 ingredient moisturiser.

And at the same time I can make a lip balm and a sugar scrub.

And it’s so much more fun than traipsing around the busy stores.

4: They haven’t been tested on animals

It might not be something you have previously considered, but if you buy a few organic ingredients they won’t have been tested on animals, but the store bought ones probably will have been.

By making your own products you are being kind to animals, yourself and your loved ones, the environment and also unborn babies of pregnant women who you give gifts to.

5: It’s better for the environment

When you choose exactly what goes in your homemade products, you can buy ingredients that have come from sustainable sources.

6: It is so much more fun

Whenever I tell my friends that I make my own homemade products they are pretty blown away as they think it’s really hard to do.

Honestly it’s not (especially the recipes that I have developed).

And they really want to learn how to do it themselves.

There is nothing more fun than having a group of friends over and showing them how to do something that will change their lives for the better.

I like to show people how to make products that they actually need and use.

The products I make the most often are homemade foaming soap that I use in the shower and to wash my hands.

I make moisturiser and lip balm as basics. When people try my lip balm, they never ever go back to buying it again. It is so luxurious – and it actually works. (unlike store bought lip balm that makes your lips worse.

I used to be addicted to applying lip balm and would put it on every 5 minutes as my lips were so dry and horrible.

When I learned about the ingredients in my lip balm I felt sick because I know that I was actually eating these ingredients for years.

Whenever I give my peppermint cocoa lip plumping lip balm to anyone as a gift, they always ask for more.

There is no store bought product that even compares to this lip balm.

7: It reduces acne

I used to have awful acne when I was using acne reducing store bought products.

When I made the switch my skin cleared up and I now only have very occasional small breakouts now.

Store bought products contain toxic ingredients that clog pores and make your skin much more oily.

8: You know exactly what you’re putting in them

Have you read the ingredients on your beauty products recently?

It’s pretty confusing and if you knew what those ingredients were you’d be pretty shocked.

Rather than a list of 50 toxic ingredients, I would rather have 3 ingredients that I know exactly what they are.

Wouldn’t you?

The beauty industry is not very well regulated which means that unfortunately companies are allowed to put toxic ingredients into beauty products.

9: They don’t contain toxic ingredients that are harming you

Thankfully the public is gradually being alerted to some of the toxic ingredients in personal care products.

Recently a court ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $72 million in damages to a lady’s family who died of ovarian cancer. It was ruled that Johnson & Johnson knew back in the 80s that their product was linked to cancer and failed to alert the public.

Pretty shocking right?

There are 5 especially harmful ingredients that you should avoid like the plague. These are:

FormaldehydeFormaldehyde can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Exposure may contribute to cancer.ParabensThis is a preservative and can also be listed as propylparaben, methylparaben, ethylparaben and butylparaben.

Parabens are in pretty much all products that contain water or aqua.

Parabens have been found to mess with hormones and have the potential to cause cancer.

5 Parabens are banned in the EU. (So sad about the UK leaving the EU!)PhthalatesPhthalates also cause hormonal problems and can decrease sperm count. Shockingly, SafeCosmetics.org found phthalates in 72 products who didn’t have this listed on their ingredients.

Phthalates are found in many products including air fresheners and detergents. NitrosaminesNitrosamines have been linked to cancer in many studies, and in 1996 the FDA advised cosmetic companies to take away any ingredients that caused nitrosamines when they were combined together.

This advice has been ignored.

The problem is, most women combine their own products which causes nitrosamines.

Most women start their beauty regime by using their soap or cleanser, toner, moisturiser, spot cream, make up base, foundation, blusher, concealer, fixing powder and all the other types of makeup.

This can be a lethal combination in terms of the amount of nitrosamines that will form, but yet they won’t be on the label because it’s not an actual ingredient.Do you want to take the risk?Fragrance/ParfumFragrance or parfum is a secret. Companies are not obliged to list all the ingredients that go into creating a fragrance. This is most likely to contain harmful chemicals.

Parfum is found in almost all products.You can easily add your own beautiful fragrance to homemade products using pure essential oils.

10: It is a much more thoughtful gift

When you buy a box of ‘smellies’ for your friends, what do you think their reaction is. “That’s nice” and it gets put on a shelf never to be used again.

But what do you think their reaction is when you make them a small bundle of homemade beauty products?

“Wow! I can’t believe she made these for me. What a thoughtful lovely gift. I can’t wait to try these. It must of taken her hours to make these so I’m definitely going to use them. I feel so special that she made me something that took so much time.”

What reaction would you rather have?

I know which one I’d choose!

And if you would like to see your loved ones faces light up this Christmas because you put your time, rather than your money into making homemade gifts, I would like to encourage you to grab a copy of my homemade Christmas gifts book.

All of the recipes are made with essential oils, and they will actually save you money this year as they are so cheap to make. Plus they take very little time to make a big batch of gifts too. So you will probably find you save time and avoid traipsing around the stores to find that perfect gift.

This book is normally priced at $24 but until tomorrow at midnight I am giving you a special Christmas discount. The discounted rate is just $6.40.

This is such a tiny amount to spend to get everything you need to see your loved ones faces light up, and make them feel so special.

And that’s not all. As a very special bonus, I have decided to give you a copy of my 30 days to a toxic free you book when you buy the 30 days of Christmas gifts book.

30 Days To A Toxic Free You is priced at $18 and it’s yours free today. It contains 30 personal care products that can also be made as gifts or made for yourself.

With both of these books combined you will have everything you need to get the toxins off your body and out of your home for good.

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